


Destiel Fanfic Season 15 Episode 4: Sweet Nothings

by AngelofWine, EllenOfOz, WaywardAF67



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), Case Fic, Castiel and Dean Winchester Need to Use Their Words, Jealous Dean Winchester, Long-Suffering Sam Winchester, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Pining, Post-Season/Series 14, Pre-Slash, Slow Burn, destiel fanfic season 15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-05 17:38:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19045201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelofWine/pseuds/AngelofWine, https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllenOfOz/pseuds/EllenOfOz, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaywardAF67/pseuds/WaywardAF67
Summary: Season 15, Episode 4: Sam is contacted by an academic who believes a stranger catfished her and stole an ancient amulet. He takes the welcome distraction from research and goes with Cas to meet her.Later, when Castiel starts texting with someone, Dean should be happy that he's found a new friend, shouldn't he? Then why does it bother him so much?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> =❤=Credits=❤=  
> Authors: [EllenofOz](https://ellen-of-oz.tumblr.com/) and [WaywardAF67](https://waywardaf67.tumblr.com/)  
> Artist: [AngelofWine](https://skeletonsinzeecloset.tumblr.com/) \- (there's more art to come!)  
>   
> Betas and Cheerleaders: Thank you to everyone who has held Ellen together this week, and sent best wishes for swift recovery to WaywardAF67, including the s15 discord group, plus TrenchcoatBaby, WaywardJenn, Lorelei2005, CBFirestarter and MalMuses. <3
> 
>  
> 
> About Destiel Fanfic Season 15:
> 
> Welcome to the Destiel Fanfic Season 15 Project! This series will comprise of 20 episodes (as separate works under the DestielFanficSeason15 collection) posting every Thursday for 20 weeks during the hiatus between season 14 and 15. This project is a collaboration between a group of authors, artists and betas. Each week different authors and artists will take part, with various configuration of authors and artists working in teams for each episode.
> 
> The endnotes will be updated with a link to the next episode once it posts, and you can always see all works in the collection here. Please also consider joining us on tumblr at [destielfanficseason16](https://destielfanficseason16.tumblr.com/) and [destielwritersroom](https://destielwritersroom.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Notes on the series: Destiel is endgame. While this fic is rated for PG-13, other fics in the series will be rated a lot higher, some Explicit. Please read the tags for individual episodes.

## THEN

When Chuck clicked his fingers, the End began. The veil between worlds is thinning, allowing all sorts of creatures and beings to return from other planes, or cross from one to another. 

After dealing with a town full of people who didn’t realize they were zombies, Team Free Will learned from the Furies that they’d summoned the Erotes, ancient Greek gods of love, to aid them in their story creation. They set a being with blue eyes and butterflies alight, so that it couldn’t manifest in our world.

Sam, Dean, and Castiel are all still working through their feelings about Jack’s death and Chuck’s betrayal. 

Castiel and Dean are still at arm’s length, although they’ve at least agreed to bury the hatchet.

=❤=❤=❤=

## NOW

A buzzing rattled Jacinta's desk. She reached over to pick up her phone, her heart jumping as she saw it was from him, the guy with the sweet smile and broad shoulders. She'd only worked up the courage to text him a few minutes ago, but it seemed he was close to his phone after all. 

Her original message was at the top, marking the start of their conversation. 

**< < Hi there, it's Jacinta, from the Cafe this morning. I thought you might like my number in return :) **

**> > Hey, great to hear from you! I haven't been able to get your beautiful eyes out of my mind all day. **

Jacinta's face warmed as she read the message. This guy was such a flatterer! But it'd been years since she'd had this kind of attention from a good-looking guy, and she was about done with bad Tinder dates. 

She fired off a reply, and they texted back and forth for some time, trading compliments and making suggestions about where and when they might meet.

She'd never met anyone who could make her feel so wanted, so loved, in just a text message. They'd only met that morning at the campus café, and got to chatting about anthropology as they waited for their orders. He'd shown a huge interest in ancient Greek mythology, and wasn't he in luck to run into the foremost professor on the subject at KU? 

Standing to leave her office, she headed over to the bookshelves lining the room and took down an old wooden box, lined in brass and locked. Her grandmother wouldn't mind her showing this to him. Jacinta picked up the small silver key from its hiding place on a higher shelf, and unlocked the box, opening it to reveal the brightly glowing golden amulet inside. Such a gaudy old thing. She relocked the box and dropped the amulet in her coat pocket, dropping the key back in its place. 

She left the office in a daze, shutting and locking it behind her, smiling at her new _Professor of Archaeology_ name plaque. “You're gonna get some, J,” she whispered to it, and floated off down the corridor on a cloud of happy nerves. 

=❤=❤=❤=


	2. Chapter 2

Sam was sitting in the best chair in his favorite room of the bunker. Books were piled around him, and one particularly old tome lay across his lap as his socked feet were kicked up on the table. 

Unlike with Dean, Sam's bedroom was more a place for rest, nothing more than physical comfort. But in the library, that’s where Sam got his _emotional_ comfort, and he was still in desperate need of that. 

Rowena had been drilling him hard on the protection spells, and once he finally mastered the protection spell she'd first shown him, it was on to a much larger-scale warding that had required some special ingredients. He'd gone to the storage rooms to retrieve salt of something-or-other, and the Ma’lak box had reminded him of his failings all over again. Even though the room had been tidied, he and Dean hadn't managed to bring themselves to get rid of it yet, and Cas had outright refused to even look at it. 

So he'd retreated to the library, unsure of where Rowena had ended up but keen to bury himself in dusty old books once again. He wasn’t even doing any real research, but he liked to look through them sometimes just to see what secrets they might hold. He figured he had a good half hour left before the lines began to blur and his eyes started crossing. His older brother had always functioned on piss and vinegar, and no more than four hours of sleep. But ever since Sam turned thirty, he’d required much more sleep—if six hours was considered _much more_.

The letters started to go fuzzy around the edges, and he was just about to pack it in for the night when he heard the ping of an email coming in. He had at least fifty Search the Web alerts set up on his phone, ranging from their usual cattle mutilations, to the much more recent zombie sightings. All he wanted to do was eat a full-fat yogurt and faceplant on his memory foam. But he was a Winchester, and duty called. 

Dropping his feet unceremoniously, Sam leaned forward and pulled his laptop closer. He'd shut it earlier without closing out his programs, and he was pleasantly surprised to find it still had at least twenty percent of its battery left. He opened the mail app from his desktop and found thirteen new messages, but the most recent one was from a .edu email address. He hadn't reached out to his limited academic contacts recently, but knew his name had made its way around enough that it could be a professor who had seen something they shouldn’t, opened a cursed box, or had a weird encounter with a strange-smelling human. Really, in his line of work, the possibilities were endless. And that’s why he was reading an email instead of indulging in his one and only dairy treat. 

> _From: Jacinta Howell_
> 
> _To: Sam Winchester_
> 
> _Subject: Enquiry_
> 
> _Dear Mr Winchester,_
> 
> _My name is Jacinta Howell. I'm the Professor of Archaeology at The University of Kansas. I heard through the grapevine that you might be the person to contact if I needed help locating a certain ancient artifact that was stolen from me recently._
> 
> _Would you be willing to meet with me, preferably in town rather than at the university?_
> 
> _Thanks,_
> 
> _Jacinta_

Sam sat back, wondering just how this lady—this professor—had ended up with his email address.

He brought up the KU website and searched for Jacinta, finding a photo of a well-presented dark-skinned woman with a gentle smile on her face. Her bio checked out—twenty years studying archaeology and working in various colleges around the world. 

Sam opened a reply email to try to arrange something for tomorrow. It wouldn't hurt to meet with her at least—it'd been a while since any of them had done work for actual cash and their funds were getting low. 

=❤=❤=❤=

Sam entered the cafe, Cas trailing along behind him. Unlike the last milk bar he and Cas had visited a few months ago, this time the interior design was sleek and modern, with a raw brick wall on one side and long wooden tables and mismatched chairs filling the rest of the space. 

He recognized Jacinta from her profile photo, perhaps a few years older. She was sitting at a smaller table over by the window, and as Sam approached, she looked up sharply. 

Sam smiled. "Ms. Howell?" 

"Mister Winchester, I presume," she said, smiling warmly and standing to take Sam's hand. 

"Please, call me Sam. And this is my associate, Castiel." 

Cas stepped forward to shake Jacinta's hand as well, saying, "Hello." 

Jacinta eyed Cas up and down, smiling. "Castiel? That's an angelic name, isn't it?" 

Sam glanced at Cas momentarily. They had no idea how much she knew about hunters, or the supernatural. Was it possible she knew about angels? Or even, that he was one? 

"Uh, yes. My parents were very religious," Cas replied without missing a beat. 

Jacinta nodded amiably and gestured at the table. "Please join me. I'll call someone over."

Once they'd ordered coffee, Jacinta got straight to business. "So, I heard you deal in rare artifacts." 

Sam nodded. "We do. You said you'd had something stolen?" 

"Yes," she replied, wincing slightly. "Well, it was the strangest thing. I, um…met this guy on the weekend, and he…he took it."

Cas sat forward slightly, his eyes narrowed. "Took it? He stole it?" 

"Well, no." Jacinta shifted uncomfortably. "Do you, uh… Oh God, this is going to make me sound insane." She laughed, but Sam kept his face as serious as he could. 

"I doubt that."

Jacinta paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "Do you believe in hypnosis?" 

"Of course. It's a proven method of mind control," Cas replied, then at Jacinta's surprised glance, added, "and an effective treatment for addictions, of course."

Sam asked, "You believe you were hypnotized?" 

"Well, that's the thing. We were getting along so well, and then he suggested I bring him my grandmother's amulet. So I did…and I haven't seen or heard from him since. He isn't returning my calls or texts. He's disappeared."

"Sorry to hear that," Sam said, trying to sound sympathetic. There was still a chance this lady had been robbed, or actually sold this amulet and was trying to get it back. "Tell us about the amulet."

"Gold, about yea big." She made a circle with her thumb and forefinger with about a half-inch gap between them. "It belonged to my grandmother. I never even knew she had it until she died and it came to me through her estate, so I couldn't ask her about it. I believe it came from Athens, possibly fifth century."

Cas nodded. "The Athenians loved their magical amulets. Except that the agora was filled with hacks selling any old coin, claiming it was magical."

Jacinta's attention was squarely on Cas now. She dropped her voice to barely a whisper. "Yes, except that this one actually is."

"Is…what?" Cas asked, tilting his head towards her and leaning in. 

"Magical!" she whispered, meeting Cas' stare with a smile. 

Sam raised an eyebrow as he took in Cas' rapt expression. He cleared his throat, capturing their attention as the coffees were delivered to their table. "What makes you think that, Ms. Howell?" 

Jacinta sat back upright, then lifted her coffee cup to her lips for a sip before she replied. "I have to keep it locked in its box. It…well, it glows. And sometimes it wants me to hold it." 

"It _wants_ to you to hold it?" Sam repeated. Cursed, perhaps? Or another Hand of God, although he thought they'd hunted down the last of those. 

She reached into the bag beside her chair and pulled out a small box, passing it to Sam. "This is what I usually keep it in. I can't explain it," Jacinta said, holding up her hands, palms out. "It calls to me."

Sam turned the box over in his hands, admiring the fine brass inlay. This had to be some kind of warding box. Cas might be able to sense what kind. 

"Are you sure it was the man you mentioned who influenced you? Could it have been the amulet?" Cas asked earnestly. 

"You…You actually believe me?" Jacinta asked, hope blossoming in her eyes, followed by confusion. "Wait, you think the amulet _wanted_ to go to Harry?"

Sam passed the box to Castiel, then picked up his coffee, smiling. "We deal in ancient artifacts, ma'am. We've seen a lot of strange stuff," he said. And God, wasn't that ever the truth. 

Cas asked, "Was Harry the man who took it?" 

Jacinta nodded, accepting the box back from Cas. "Yes. I don't even know his last name. He was so nice on the phone, in texts…but when we met up he barely said a word. Just took the amulet and left. He was about your height," she said, nodding in Cas' direction. "Caucasian. Sandy hair."

Sam drained his coffee, then pushed his chair back from the table. "Would you excuse me for a moment? I'll just call another of our colleagues and see if he's heard of an amulet like it." 

At Jacinta's nod, he stood up, leaving Cas at the table looking a little wide-eyed and out of his depth. As he moved away he made a few notes in his phone, thinking he'd have to get in touch with a few people in the hunter network with links to the black market. But first, he needed to check in with Dean. 

Dean picked up on the second ring, just as Sam had stepped outside the door. "Sammy? Could you hurry up and get back here? The witch is driving me crazy."

Sam grinned. "Not sure I want to know. How's the research going?" 

"Not great. We've read over just about every book in the library and we got nothing on these, uh, scrotes."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Erotes, Dean."

"Yeah, that's what I said. How's the professor lady? Our kind of thing?" 

Sam peered back inside through the window to see Cas and Jacinta chatting away like old friends. "I think she might actually be Cas' kind of thing."

There was silence from Dean for a moment, and Sam was about to tell him about the amulet, but Dean said, "What's that supposed to mean? She hitting on him? What's his reaction? You gave him the talk about getting involved like that, right?" 

Sam chuckled. "Relax, they're just talking! Anyway she's lost a possibly magical amulet. Gold, ancient Greek. I'm gonna call around, but you ever heard of someone hypnotizing people to steal stuff?" 

Dean still sounded worried when he replied, "Not recently, no. But all kinds of shit is going down now, you know that. You guys aren't, y'know, drinking any milkshakes there, are you?" 

"What? No!" 

"Okay. It's just the last time I let you two go on a case on your own you ended up with a ponytail and a wife."

Sam rolled his eyes again. "Shut up. Just go back to your reading. Oh, and, uh…tell Rowena I said hi."

Dean chuckled. "Sure thing. And tell Cas not to go try hooking up with any strange women." 

"What, like you might have done? He learned from the best, Dean." 

"Ha ha. Catch you later, bitch," Dean said, and hung up. 

"Jerk," Sam muttered fondly at his phone, before he headed back inside. 

Back at the table, Cas and Jacinta were leaning towards each other, Jacinta holding her coffee in two hands as she smiled at something Cas was saying. 

"And then of course, the rest of the aristocrats all had to get pet ferrets for their children as well!”

Jacinta laughed, surprising Sam as he pulled his chair out to sit back down. 

"How do you know so much about ancient Athens, Castiel?” 

Castiel said, "Um," and his eyes flicked to Sam for barely a moment, before he added, "I've done some study of my own."

Jacinta's eyes sparkled as she regarded him. "Well if you ever want to tell me more about your study, you know where to find me." Her eyes moved to Sam. "Any luck?" 

"Not yet," Sam replied, "but we'll start looking into it. We can discuss terms once we get a solid lead." 

"Of course. And don't worry about the coffee, that's on me," she added with a wink to Cas. Wow, this chick had it bad. What was going on with Cas lately? From what Dean had told him, Cas had actually invited Meg along to hunt for that lamia with them last week, and now he was making eyes at this lady. He knew something had happened in the alt universe Anael had zapped Cas into, as well. Dean had _seen_ something, but wouldn't tell Sam what it was. Had Dean screwed something up between him and Cas? Because not long ago, Sam had been sure they were finally getting their heads out of their asses.

"It was lovely to meet you, Jacinta," Cas said, shaking her hand again as they all stood up. 

"Likewise, Castiel. And you, Sam," she said, taking his hand as well. 

"We'll be in touch. And please let us know if you hear anything from, uh, Harry." Sam smiled. 

As they walked back to the truck, Cas said, "Jacinta said she met Harry at a bar a few streets over." 

"Sure. Do you want to go check that out? I'll see if I can find anything out at the university."

Cas frowned. "She asked us not to go there, Sam."

"I know, but I think we need to find out a little more about her. Did you get anything from that little box?" 

Cas shook his head. "Powerful warding. No indication on what might have been inside. The inlay is actually iron, with brass coating."

"Okay. Well, I'll call you when I'm on my way back in an hour or so."

Cas nodded. "Fine. Just don't go all… double hockey sticks on me." 

Sam levelled him with a look and opened the car door. The little asshole wore that tiny smirk he got sometimes around his eyes. Sam was never gonna live that one down, was he? 

"I'll try."

=❤=❤=❤=

Two unfruitful hours later, Sam drove back into the main street, looking for the bar Jacinta had mentioned. 

He’d asked around at the university, and Jacinta was clean as a whistle, had studied archaeology in several places around the world including in Greece, and had an exemplary record online. He wondered if her grandmother had known what the amulet was when she passed it down, or if she had intended to tell Jacinta about it before she died. In any case, research was all they had left, and that's what Sam would do as soon as they got back to the bunker. 

He parked along the curb outside the bar Jacinta had told them about, not seeing Cas anywhere nearby. Getting out of the car, he crossed to the doorway, surprised there was anyone there at this time on a weekday afternoon, but there were a few scattered people around the alcoves, nursing their drinks. 

Castiel sat on a stool, chatting to a man who had his back to Sam. He had to check twice to make sure it wasn't Dean—he had the same light brown hair and build as his brother. The guy turned to see who Cas was waving at, then turned back to say something to Cas, putting a hand on Cas’ arm. Cas smiled—actually smiled. Sam didn’t think he’d seen Cas smile like that in a long while, certainly since before Jack had… Well, it had been a while.

Cas stood up from his stool and came over to Sam. “Hello, Sam. Josh over there works at the university and knows Jacinta, but he wasn’t here the other night, and I didn’t speak to anyone else who recognized her. I think we’re at a dead end.”

Sam nodded. “Right. Guess it’s time to head home and do some more research there.”

Castiel gave one more glance back towards the bar before he headed for the door, but when Sam followed his look, the guy at the bar—Josh, he guessed—was facing away. He followed Cas out the door, musing that he was glad to see Cas making friends so easily.

=❤=❤=❤=


	3. Chapter 3

Dean heard the door to the garage clunk open and shut. Good, Sammy could distract the witch so she’d stop bothering him. 

“Ooh, is that the boys home? I’ll go and put the kettle on, shall I?” Rowena squealed as she jumped up and headed out towards the kitchen. 

Sam appeared in the doorway first, his duffel slung over his shoulder, then Cas behind him. 

As always, the sight of the angel made Dean’s chest give an odd lurch, but he stoically nodded and said, “Hey.”

Sam put his bag down on one of the tables, while Cas walked over towards Dean, saying, “Hello, Dean.” 

Dean smiled at him, then frowned as Rowena came back in with a steaming mug. He looked up at Cas as he ran his gaze along the stack of books Dean had piled on the table. Dean said, “Glad to see you. She’s been driving me crazy with her, uh—” he waved his hand around, trying to describe how annoying she could be, “—her tea, and complaining.”

“Excuse me, I’m Scottish. That’s what we do.” Rowena put her mug down on the table and set her eyes on Cas. "Hello, Castiel."

"Rowena."

“And Samuel. How did the job go?” She sat back down at the table, sipping at her tea.

Sam shrugged. “We didn’t find the amulet, or the guy who took it. I’ll ask around a bit. Did you find anything about the Erotes?" 

Dean sighed, slumping back into his chair. "Just that they're ancient Greek gods or whatever. The buddies of Aphrodite, right? The goddess of love?" he added, looking to Rowena where she sat, surrounded by her own books and notes. 

"I thought I was here to help you with poor wee Jack? I haven't been looking for anything on your god problem," Rowena said, turning a page of one of the books open in front of her. "But yes, they're generally associated with Aphrodite. Her 'retinue.' Which I guess means _buddies_."

“Thanks for taking a look into it for us, Rowena,” Sam said, smiling at her. Dean stared at him. Since when did they start thanking Rowena for anything? She’d said herself that she was racking up a debt they’d be expected to return at some time in the future. 

Sam continued, turning back to Dean, “Did you take another look at that site I sent you?”

Dean had no idea what he was talking about. “What site?”

“The ancient Greek mythology site? I sent it to you before.”

“Nope, I haven’t even looked at my phone since you called.” Dean pulled it out of his pocket, only now seeing the messages from Sam.

“Hang on, you’ve been looking through books this whole time and haven’t looked online at all? Info is way easier to find online. What else do you think the internet is for?" 

Dean shrugged. "Porn?" 

Sam sighed heavily, turning to his duffel and pulling out his laptop. 

Castiel moved over to an armchair at one side of the room, sitting down and pulling out his phone. 

"We have a fucking library, Sam!" Dean said, storming back over to his pile of books and plonked down on the chair. He started taking them off the pile one by one and making a new pile beside it, quietly seething. He'd known Sam would come in here and take the research over—he did it every time. 

Rowena moved over to join Sam at his table, squeezing his shoulder as she sat beside him. Dean narrowed his eyes. What was she playing at?

It didn't take long before Rowena murmured, "There." When Dean looked up from the book he was not really reading, she was pointing at something on the screen. 

"Hey, get this—the Erotes are known as the retinue of Aphrodite, blah blah…" Sam read as his eyes scanned down the page. "They're also sometimes described as the personification of aspects of love. So there's Eros, who I guess is the main guy, the God of love, and a bunch more. Anteros, Hed—hedy-something, Pothos—" 

"Oh, they all have names? Great." Dean stood up, intent on finding beer if he was going to have to keep hearing about this mythology crap. 

Sam continued reading, "Himeros, Morpheus…" 

"And now, we're in _The Matrix_. Fucking fantastic." Dean left the room, walking down the corridor to the kitchen, where he found Rowena. "Y'know, if you're gonna be here a while, you might like to do us a grocery run at some point," Dean said, his annoyance giving his words more bite than he perhaps intended, as he watches Rowena carefully spreading something orange onto some bread. 

"Where do you think this marmalade came from? It's impossible to create food from nothing, you know," Rowena retorted as she put down the knife and took a bite.

"Whatever," Dean muttered, opening the fridge and pulling out three beers. He had no idea why Rowena was even there, apart from some weird-ass quest to get with his brother. He guessed Sam could do worse. They were as weird as each other. 

Back in the library, Sam and Cas were animatedly discussing something. 

"Listen to this, Dean,” Sam began. “Anteros is known as the god of requited love. He’s often shown with butterfly wings, and symbols of butterflies.”

“Butterflies, like the ones we saw in zombietown?” Dean asked. “That was a god?”

“Anteros, yes, we think so,” Cas said, taking one of the beer bottles Dean offered him. “The entity with the blue eyes we saw in the church.”

Sam turned to Cas. “But that thing was burned up, wasn’t it?”

“No, actually,” Rowena said as she came back into the room and resumed her seat beside Sam. “We only banished it. That creature was too powerful to be killed like that. With the veil weakened, it could come through again.”

Dean shared a glance with Sam that seemed to say, _great, just what we needed._

He sat down at the table opposite Sam, passing a beer over to him, and took a swig from his own bottle. Sam went back to reading on his laptop, and Cas picked his phone up again and started tapping away at it. 

Dean sat quietly for a few moments, then he leaned over the table and said quietly to Sam, "What’s gotten into Cas today? He’s like a teenager with that thing." Dean looked over at Cas to see him with his phone up to his face, thumbs flying. "What is he even doing?" 

Sam glanced up at Dean from his own screen, then over to Cas. "He's texting." He looked back down. 

"Well I can see that, genius. Who is he texting?" A sudden thought made his stomach twist. "It's not Meg, is it?" 

Sam looked up again, annoyed. "I don't know, Dean. The lady from the college gave him her number, maybe it's her."

Dean looked back to Cas, who had put the phone down momentarily and was reading from a book open in his lap. As Dean stared, he picked up the phone again and smiled at whatever he read there. It was barely a quirk of his lips and a crease in the side of his eye, but Dean knew a smile on the angel when he saw one. 

He cleared his throat and said, louder, "Hey Cas, you find anything?" 

Cas glanced up at him briefly, then back to the phone. "Not yet."

Dean looked at Sam, but he was deep in concentration. Dean stood up and wandered over to where Cas was still slumped in the armchair he'd been sitting in since they got home. 

"Hey, what's on the phone?" he asked, trying to get a look at the screen as he approached. 

Cas lifted the phone just as Dean approached, but he managed to get a glimpse of the message app before it flicked to black. 

Cas looked up at him, his face betraying nothing. "Just, uh, browsing. Have you found something?" 

An icy sensation crept into Dean’s stomach. Cas was chatting with someone, and hiding it from him. Of course, Cas had done stuff behind their backs before and concealed it a lot better—Crowley sprang to mind—but this barely hidden texting was something new. 

Something was off about the angel. His cheeks were slightly flushed, his eyes shone—Dean might even say he was excited about something—or someone, he thought as his eyes flicked back to the phone in Cas’ hand. He swallowed, fighting a tight feeling in his throat. “I’m gonna, uh, watch some of the new _Game of Thrones_ season. You want in?”

Cas looked up at him like Dean had offered to bring him the moon, but then his smile faltered and he looked back down at his phone. “Actually, no. I think I’ll stay out here and help with the research for a little while.” 

Dean felt like melting away behind the nearest bookshelf, but instead he nodded. “Okay. Guess watching our favorite characters die isn’t as much fun as whoever you’re chatting with, huh?” He walked away before Cas replied, feeling a little bit like a kid in a playground, but hey, rejection stung. He grabbed a couple of beers on the way through to the Fortress of Dean-itude. It was a Fortress kind of night.

=❤=❤=❤=

Castiel felt on top of the world.

Sure, he regretted upsetting Dean by not watching his show with him, but he’d felt the later seasons just hadn’t captured the intensity that the story had started with. He’d catch up later, anyway. Dean wouldn’t let him watch any of the later ones until he’d caught up, he was sure. He rolled his eyes fondly, but the phone buzzing in his hand banished thoughts of Dean.

**> > So you’re in Lebanon? That’s not too far away :) Come back and have a drink with me. I’d love to see your face again around here.**

He’d been startled to get a text message from Josh, the guy he’d spoken to in the bar earlier, when he and Sam were heading back to the bunker. The guy had been very friendly in person, and after they’d parted Castiel had felt sad that he’d had to leave him so soon. The text message was a welcome distraction, and they’d since kept up a steady chatter. 

**< < I’m just finishing up some work, but perhaps I can get away for a little while.**

Castiel felt warm all over at the thought of seeing Josh again, of having a new friend that he could get to know. Of course, he hadn't told Josh anything real about his life. The guy was a colleague of Jacinta's at the university, so Cas had stuck with his historian persona to cover for his knowledge on certain subjects, and tried to stay vague on everything else. 

**> > Okay. So tell me about this published work of yours about the diet of the religious community at Pytho**

He typed out a long, rambling reply, trying his best to make up something plausible. Pytho was an ancient name for Delphi, near Athens. He’d only ever visited the area once at the time, and it wasn’t to visit the Oracle, but rather to mete out punishment on some poor soul. He was very rarely told the reason for the orders, but he had still carried them out without question. He hated those memories now, even though it was all so long ago.

Maybe he shouldn’t be chatting with Josh, lying to him about who he was. He could still go and watch the end of the show with Dean. Deciding Dean would probably accept beer and snacks as a peace offering, he stood up and walked down the stairs, then through the door to the kitchen.

He stopped abruptly when the room was empty. Jack was often sitting at the table watching Sam's laptop, or making PB&Js at the counter, but now, his absence was like a punch to the gut. They were all still grieving in their own ways—he doubted that would end any time soon. Perhaps he was hurting Dean more than he knew by declining his offer. 

He had just opened the pantry to consider what snack Dean might appreciate at this time of night, when Rowena swept into the kitchen. She busied herself doing something behind him, but when he turned with a packet of salted peanuts, she was leaning back against the counter, watching him.

He stopped in place, raising his eyebrows. “Something you need, Rowena?”

“Are you all right, Castiel?” When he doesn’t immediately reply except to give her a puzzled look, she steps around him to take the packet of tea from the pantry. “I’ve just noticed that you seem…a little different this evening.”

“Different?” Castiel had no idea what she was talking about. He took the peanuts to the counter and turned, waiting for her to continue. 

“I saw Dean leaving the room just now—he looked a little upset. Did you fight?”

Castiel huffed, wondering why everyone suddenly wanted to know about his business. “No, we didn’t fight. He was just upset because I wouldn’t join him to watch TV.” 

“Because you’re texting your new friend?” Rowena looked up from pouring hot water into her tea. 

“No! I’m helping with research.”

“But you’re not, are you?” Rowena said gently. She reached forward, putting her hand gently on his forearm. "Castiel, it’s okay to meet someone new. You deserve to be happy, after all you've been through."

"Even if that were true, I can't let that happen. Not until this business with Chuck is finished—maybe not even then." 

"Whyever not? What about seizing the day and all that? Take what happiness you can, Castiel!" 

Castiel paused, considering. The deal with the Empty Entity had been weighing heavily on him for some time now, and part of him hoped now that the empty presumably had Jack after all, his deal might be voided. But the look in the entity's eyes as it controlled Dumah meant it would never give up. It was always going to come for him. 

He looked down at the peanuts clutched between his hands on the counter. "I...I made a deal."

Rowena threw up her hands. "Oh, good lord, here we go." 

"Hear me out, Rowena. You know that Jack woke _something else_ up along with me, when I was in the Empty?” When she nodded, he continued, “A few months ago, that entity came for Jack in heaven. Rather than letting it take him, I… I told it to take me instead.” The entity's cold words rang in his memory. “It said, ‘When you finally give yourself permission to be happy, that's when I'll come.’” 

He sighed, wondering if the cold feeling in his gut would ever subside at the thought of the deal. He’d been close to his idea of happy several times, but held himself back. He wasn’t ready to give up, not yet. He looked back to Rowena. _“_ If I allow myself that, I'll bring us all into danger."

The sadness, the pity in Rowena's eyes turned to fire in an instant. "Let it come! We'll be ready for it."

Castiel grimaced. "I appreciate the thought, but please, let's just get through this new apocalypse before we worry about that."

Rowena sighed. "Is it really worth letting yourself be miserable, rather than take on happiness and an angry monster?" 

He shrugged. "For now, yes. Please don’t tell Sam or Dean about this. I don’t want them to worry about it."

She shook her head. "You Winchesters and your sacrifices for each other. Very well, I’ll keep mum." She took her now brewed tea and wandered out of the kitchen, back towards the library.

Castiel leaned against the counter, thinking over what she'd said. She took pleasure in the moment, without being truly happy. He glanced down at his phone, where there were several messages from Josh there. 

Maybe he could go out, meet up with Josh. Enjoy himself, but not too much. It wouldn't matter—there was only one person that could make him truly happy, and he was sure the Empty knew that as well. 

He took his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the waiting message.

**> > come on, are you going to come out for a drink after all?**

**< < I don't drink much**

**> > okay, I'll drink and you can do the talking 😂**

Castiel smiled. It had been a while since he'd done much texting, and Josh had introduced him to the wealth of new emojis that were now available on the message app they used. 

He may as well just go for it—go and meet up with Josh and have a good time. He remembered finding Josh pleasant to look at when they'd met at the bar, but his real attraction wasn't physical. They'd only been chatting for a few hours, but he felt like Josh really _got_ him, in a way that very few people did outside of Dean and Sam, and even then they didn't always understand. 

He tapped out a reply, waiting nervously for the return text before putting the peanuts back in the pantry and heading quietly for the garage. 

=❤=❤=❤=

Dean peered into the library as he passed on his way to the kitchen. He’d finished one episode of _GoT_ and was annoyed that Cas wasn’t there with him so that he could complain about how awful the writing was. He’d come out to get more beer and to drag the angel back into the room with him—the guy might not need sleep, but he sure as shit still deserved some time off now and then. Plus, Dean missed his comfortable presence beside him, from their usual movie or series-watching nights.

But Cas was nowhere to be seen. Sam and Rowena were both still in the library, sitting opposite each other at a table with books piled around them, and Sam’s laptop open in front of him. Dean couldn’t believe they were still there, even after he and Rowena had been looking through books most of the day. 

“Where’s Cas?” Dean asked them from the doorway. 

Sam looked over briefly, before he turned back to the screen. “He went out a little while ago.”

“Out?” A quiet, but insistent alarm bell started ringing in the back of Dean’s mind. He took a few steps into the room. “Out where? It’s nearly nine.”

“I think he said he was going to have a few drinks in town,” Sam said, turning a few pages of the book next to him. 

Dean blinked. “A few drinks? On his own?”

Sam turned to look at him again, the bitchface stronger this time. “No, Dean. He was meeting up with some guy he met at the bar earlier.”

“Some… guy? What about the girl?”

“Och no, it’s definitely a guy,” Rowena commented, her smirk rubbing Dean up the wrong way. “Who do you think he’s been texting with all afternoon?”

Dean stared at her, a sinking feeling in his stomach making him take a few more steps forward so he could sit in a chair. “Oh. Well… I guess he’s allowed other friends.” He frowned, suddenly irrationally territorial.

“I don’t think he was after friendship with this particular guy, if you know what I mean,” Rowena said with a chuckle. When Sam joined in, Dean glared at them in turn.

A few weeks ago, Dean would have denied all ideas that Cas could be into guys. He’d never shown any interest in anyone in that way, until Dean had walked in on him getting all cuddly with alt-himself in that other universe. And hadn’t that been some fucked up crap that Dean was still trying his hardest to bleach from his brain. The fact was, though, that Cas had said long ago that angels didn’t have gender while in heaven, so who was he to make assumptions on anyone’s sexuality? 

Still, it stung that Dean had been holding himself back from Cas because he had no idea how he might react, and he hadn’t wanted to ruin the relationship they already had. And now Cas had gone off to meet up with some other random guy he’d only met that day? He picked irritably at the spine of the nearest book to him on the table, long enough for Sam to notice and slap his hand away.

“If you’re pissed enough to start destroying things, why don’t you try putting some of these back on the shelves? I’m still stuck at a dead end with this amulet thing.” Sam sighed heavily. He picked up his phone just as Dean stood up again. Fuck this, he was going to drink until either Cas got home so he could complain at him, or he passed out somewhere. There was still a bottle of whiskey somewhere in the Fortress, he was sure. 

He got halfway up the corridor before Sam shouted from the library, “Dean! Come see this!”

Dean rolled his eyes, but turned around and trudged back. This had better be good.

Sam was staring at his laptop when Dean walked back into the room. “We’ve got a problem,” he said, looking up at Dean as he came over. 

Dean peered at the screen. “Security footage?”

“It’s from the night Jacinta said the amulet was stolen. It came in this afternoon, so I sent it on to her to see if she could identify this ‘Harry’ guy. Check this out.” He moved the video forward until a man walked in from the right, a woman hanging off his arm, looking up at him. Sam paused the video when they were both clearly on-screen.

“Who’s that?” Dean asked, peering at the grainy image of the guy—tall, broad, pretty face.

“Harry, apparently,” Sam replied. 

“Okay, so…?” Dean asked, not sure what the big deal was.

Sam frowned, looking worried. “That’s the guy Cas met this afternoon, Josh. Who he’s having drinks with right now.” 

=❤=❤=❤=


	4. Chapter 4

"He's still not answering. Dammit, Cas!" Dean said as he paced back across the library, rubbing one hand across the top of his scalp. 

Sam watched him from his seat, a hacked traffic cam feed on his laptop in front of him. The poor guy was beside himself. It would be sort of adorable, if Sam wasn't also worried about who Josh was and what he might be up to with Cas. "Dean, stop panicking."

"I'm not panicking, okay? I'm worried. How the hell did it happen that the first guy Cas is attracted to had turned out to be a bad guy?" 

Sam snorted. "He's kinda got a track record. What about that reaper? Or Meg? Maybe even Crowley—" 

"Oh come on, Cas never got along with Crowley." He turned to pace away from Sam. 

"No, you're right. Pretty sure it was only _you_ Crowley had a thing for."

Dean whirled around. "Hey, I can't be responsible for anything I did while I was a demon." 

Sam grinned to himself and looked back at the laptop, as Dean resumed his pacing. Dean had never been willing to discuss anything that had happened in that awful demon summer, but he'd never outright denied anything. 

Dean turned and started his path back towards Sam again, worrying at his lip with his fingers. "What if the guy is dangerous? I mean, all we know is that he hypnotizes people into stealing their stuff. What if he's after more from Cas? What if the hypnosis doesn't work on angels so he just kills him?" 

"Can't kill him without an angel blade, remember?" Sam said, just as he spotted the truck Cas usually drove. It had taken him a while to sort through the camera feeds until he found the one he wanted, but the truck was parked right outside the bar they'd visited earlier that afternoon. "Got him. They're back at that bar, or they were…" He squinted at the timestamp on the video. "Oh, this is live. Nice."

"Look, would you stop geeking out over traffic feeds and get in the car? We need to get moving." Dean headed towards the door to the bedrooms.

"Wait, you wanna just crash his date?" Sam closed the laptop with a snap, perfectly willing to believe that his brother wanted to crash Cas' date, or whatever it was. Dean had been itching to go up there for the last half hour—Sam was surprised he'd lasted this long. 

Dean stopped and turned back. "It's not a date, Sam. They're just having drinks."

Sam just levelled a look at him. Yep, sometimes his brother was such a dumbass. 

=❤=❤=❤=

Castiel sat nursing a beer at the bar, while Josh chatted beside him about the latest large tornado to have passed across Kansas. It was a pleasant, empty conversation, comfortable in a way, and Castiel felt like coming here was the right decision after all. 

He had just taken a mouthful when Josh asked, "Castiel, could I ask your professional opinion on something? I've recently discovered a few family heirlooms and this old amulet caught my attention."

Castiel tried not to spray beer all over his new friend, but swallowed carefully and asked, his voice rough, "Amulet?"

Josh brought a round, golden disk out of his pocket and held it out. Glyphs were etched into it, possibly Greek, but they were almost worn right off. If this was Jacinta's amulet, it certainly wasn't magical—Castiel couldn't feel any kind of emanation from it. 

"May I take a closer look?" he asked, carefully taking the amulet when Josh offered it to him. It certainly matched the description that Jacinta had given them, although why Josh would show a stolen item to him like this was baffling, if he was the one who stole it. 

He gently let his mortal vision fall away, allowing his angelic sight to take over. Since his burnout in the zombie graveyard, Castiel had been aware of his grace recharging, but it had gone beyond what it had been in his de-powered form after the Fall. He hadn't tried to flex his wings again—even on the long nights when he waited for the others to wake up again, he hadn't been game to even try. 

But his angelic sight was definitely back, and stronger than it had been in years, so he'd gone back to shutting it down when it got too exhausting seeing souls all the time. 

As he glanced at the medallion, he could see no trace of power, but when he looked up, Josh was powerfully, blindingly radiant. Castiel gasped, taking in the aura shining around Josh in greens and blues, his eyes bright white sparks. 

Josh grinned as he took in Castiel's shock. "You see me now, don't you?" 

"What are you?" Castiel asked quietly, as he quickly looked around himself for other creatures, then for the exits. There were about twenty other humans in the room who would have to be protected if a fight went down, but no other creatures that he could detect. 

"Come now, you don't know? You seemed so knowledgeable about the ancient Greeks not so long ago," Josh replied, as though they were continuing their conversation and he hadn't just come out as some kind of supernatural creature.

"You're part of the Greek pantheon?" Castiel asked. Josh must be wearing some kind of warding on him, or Castiel would have sensed him earlier. 

“Come, Castiel. I want to show you something. Stand up and follow.” The glow pulsed around Josh, and Castiel felt himself move to follow him without really deciding to do it. 

As they both headed for the front door, Castiel recovered enough of his wits to pull out his phone to send a message to Sam about the amulet, but when he saw the number of missed calls from Dean, he realized something had to be wrong. He raised his phone to his ear to call once he was outside on the sidewalk, but before the call could connect, his phone was knocked from his hands and clattered to the ground. 

"Can't have your little friends ruining my fun now, can we?" Josh muttered, and placing two fingers to Castiel’s head, pulsed power into him and he saw only darkness.

=❤=❤=❤=

Dean walked back towards Sam, dodging around the drunk girls occupying a small dance floor, and reached him just as his brother put his phone back to his ear. “He’s not here, Sam.”

“Okay. It’s okay, Dean. We’ll find him.”

Sam’s confidence usually calmed him, but tonight it only made his worry ratchet up further. “Is it okay, though? What if he’s taken him somewhere to murder him?”

Sam muttered something along the lines of, “Or nail him.”

“What was that?” Dean asked over the loud music.

“Nothing.” Sam took his phone away from his face to touch the screen, grimacing as a pair of drunk girls who couldn’t have been legal brushed past him closer than they probably needed to. “He’s still not picking up. Let’s get out of here?”

Dean headed for the door, his heart in his throat. Why the hell did Cas have to go off like that? Had he said something wrong again? Seemed they were always at each other’s throats lately, and Dean hated it, but the constant proximity to the guy was making him more and more frustrated.

Outside, a cool breeze was blowing down the main street. Shivering girls in strappy tops and short skirts huddled for warmth as they smoked out on the street. Dean pulled out his phone and tried calling Cas again—he wasn’t really sure why he was bothering at his point, but it made him feel like he still had some kind of connection to Cas, even though they had absolutely no idea where he might have been taken. He let it ring a few times, then was about to leave another message where he tried not to sound like a jealous wife, when Sam called him over where he was standing near the corner of the building. 

Dean hung up and went to join him. “What is it?”

“There’s a dumpster just around here. Something vibrating underneath. A phone, I think.” Sam shone the torch on his own phone underneath the dumpster, then he took the long piece of broom handle Dean passed him, reaching underneath to pull the phone out from where it had obviously been kicked. He passed it up to Dean before he got back to his feet.

Dean’s heart sank somewhere near his knees as he recognized Cas’ smartphone, a huge crack across the screen but still at 30% battery. The forty-five missed calls from Dean and twenty from Sam sat accusingly among the notifications, as if to chide them for failing their best friend. 

Dean peered down the alley beside the building, at a loss as to what to do next. “Fuck,” he muttered.

A muffled shout sounded from further down the alley, followed by a crash of something metal. Dean shared a glance with Sam, then took off down the alley at a run, shoving the cracked phone in his pocket as he went.

=❤=❤=❤=

Castiel opened his eyes and peered around in the dim light. His head ached, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. As he took in the hard brick wall he was propped against and the asphalt covering the ground, he let grace seep through his vessel to heal and relieve the pressure behind his eyes. He tried to shift, but his hands were bound to something hard and metal behind him. 

A voice sounded from the shadow to his left. “Ah, you’re awake again.” Josh. He moved into the dim light from windows somewhere above Castiel, standing over him. “You’re going to tell me how I can take your grace, and then I might leave you alive.” 

“Take my…what? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Castiel mumbled, stalling for time as he looked around to try to work out where they were. By the music he could still hear, they must be behind the bar. “Who are you, anyway?”

Josh stood up to his full height, letting his aura shine out into the mortal plane. “The humans knew me long ago as Hedylogos. These days I have many names, but I’ve been gaining in power ever since they invented these lovely communication devices.” He waved his phone in the air before replacing it in his back pocket. “It’s not enough though. My brother, Anteros, is trying to take this world for his own, and my other brothers are vying for the title. I already took the divine energy stored in that amulet, and the spell it contains should have helped me to steal yours in turn, but it hasn’t worked. So I’m going to take it, and I’m going to go hunt Anteros down.”

Cas gave a short laugh, shoving backwards at whatever he was tied to. It moved slightly with a clatter—must be a dumpster, and he was tied to a wheel by something strong enough to hold an angel. 

How had he managed to stumble on another of the Erotes? He wasn’t sure what he’d expected from Aphrodite’s retinue, and he was a little embarrassed not to have sensed divinity in Josh before now. He obviously had some kind of verbal magic, but Castiel hadn’t been brainwashed into coming here, had he? Of course this had happened, though. When had anything he’d ever done for himself ever gone right? At least this time he hadn’t slept with Josh prior to finding out he was a potentially insane mythical creature.

But what Castiel found really interesting was that the guy seemed to have no idea how to get his grace from him. Charlie had said they had summoned the Erotes to do a deal with them—had they been in some other plane all this time? Did he really know nothing of angels? Stalling for more time until he could work out how to use that to his advantage, he tried to appear frightened, but defiant—which wasn’t too far from the truth, if he was honest. “What, you think I’m just going to give it to you?”

“Well, yes.” Josh’s eyes darted around.

Castiel tilted his head, squinting, “Have you actually seen an angel before, Hedylogos? We’re not so easy to take anything from.” 

Hedylogos drew a long knife from somewhere at his hip. It gleamed wickedly in the lights from the windows above as he knelt down in front of Castiel, then ran his right hand down the side of Castiel’s face. 

“I understand there aren’t that many of you left. You’re certainly a beautiful one. My brother wasn’t wrong when he said that angels were perfect creatures, and your earthly vessel isn’t too bad either.” His thumb ran lightly over Castiel’s bottom lip and Castiel resisted the urge to bite it as he stared up at the god’s face, still brightly glowing with unearthly beauty. He managed not to flinch as the blade touched his neck lightly, although every muscle screamed to throw this monster off him. He wasn’t sure what kind of blade it was, if it was blessed or divine in some way, but he had to take a chance.

He spoke quietly, but commandingly. “Give me your grace, or tell me how to take it. Don’t you want to live, to protect your human friends? I saw you earlier with your tall friend—rather distinctively handsome himself—I’m sure I could find him again and cause him some trouble. What do you say?”

The bar that afternoon when he had first met Josh—it seemed so long ago now. But Sam had been there, and he couldn’t bring down more trouble on Sam or Dean. He growled, “Leave him out of this.”

“Give me the grace.” Hedylogos stared him down. Castiel could feel the divine magic now, trying to convince him to give up, give in. Now that he knew what it was, he shook it off. His own divine magic was stronger than this depowered god. It was still risky, he wasn’t sure exactly what Hedylogos was capable of with the power he stole from the amulet, but enough was enough. Time to show him what modern divinity looked like.

“No.” Castiel allowed grace to infuse his vessel, a concentration of power at his wrists making the magically reinforced rope he was bound with to fall to ashes. He grabbed Hedylogos by the front of his shirt and threw him across the alley, where he clattered into some trash cans with a shout. 

He dropped his angel blade into his hand, gripping it and manifesting his glory, turning all of his many eyes on Hedylogos. His wings! Oh, it felt so good to stretch them again in this plane. 

Hedylogos clambered to his feet, his eyes wide but blade still gripped in his hand, and they both crouched in a fighting stance as they started to circle each other. Hedylogos lunged forwards with a snarl, slicing through the air in front of Castiel’s stomach as he darted backwards. They both struck, their blades clashing together as they moved fluidly, Castiel pleased at the way his training came back as easily as breathing. Without conscious thought, he flexed his wings and blinked behind Hedylogos, striking to shove his blade through the god’s back, but Hedylogos jumped aside, managing to slice his sword across Cas’ shoulder as he went. Castiel hissed, but healed himself quickly. They performed a complex dance in the narrow alleyway, in and out of the ether and only occasionally clashing their blades together or even hitting each other. Castiel managed to land a blow to the god’s thigh, bright light pulsing through his leg, but the god merely grunted and kept up his defences as he healed himself. 

_This could go on for hours_ , Castiel thought as he turned to fly behind Hedylogos and caught a glimpse of Dean and Sam standing, wide-eyed, in the alleyway, guns in their hands. He met Dean’s eyes for barely a moment, then turned to face Hedylogos, only to have the god thrust his sharp blade through his chest, pushing the air out of him with a thump. He stumbled backwards, then found a wall at his back. He choked out a sudden mouthful of blood as he looked up, surprised. 

Hedylogos’ grin was smug as he stalked forward, leaning on the sword to twist it slightly. Castiel’s sight went grey around the edges and he closed his eyes against the pain for a moment. 

Hedylogos’ magic assaulted his defences, insistent and overwhelming. “Give me your grace. Now.”

=❤=❤=❤=

Dean was just about to throw up all over this already-disgusting alley, he was sure. 

He and Sam had run along the alley, guns in hand, only to skid to a stop and cover their eyes as a bright blast of divine light shone out from behind a second dumpster. Dean risked a look as soon as he thought it was safe enough, and the scene in the alley made him gasp all over again. 

Cas’ wings were the first thing he saw. He stood over another guy—the hypnotist guy, Josh, he thought—his angel blade in hand and that bad-ass look on his face that sent shivers down Dean’s spine.

The guy on the ground got up, and Dean pushed Sam back a bit as he saw Josh also had a blade—some kind of short sword, he thought. They started to circle, then just as they clashed, Cas disappeared, and reappeared behind Josh. Dean’s jaw dropped as they moved around the alley, moving way too fast for humans. He heard Sam mutter, “What the fuck?” as Josh started flicking in and out of view as well. Was Josh an angel, too? There was no way Dean could get involved without risk of hurting Cas in the process. 

At some point, Cas looked over and locked eyes with Dean. The angel’s eyes widened fractionally, then he turned around just as Josh shoved the blade into him. 

Dean shouted, “No!” as Cas stumbled back into the wall of the alley and his blade clattered to the ground. _No, no, no_. He couldn’t go through this again. He moved forward, tucking his gun back into his jeans, shoving Sam’s hand off his shoulder as he tried to hold him back. 

“Dean, no!” Sam said urgently, but Dean was past caring. He was gonna gank this motherfucker if it was the last thing he did. This was all his fault. He moved closer to them as Josh leaned towards Cas, saying something. Cas looked awful, blood all over his chin and clothes, and just as Dean was a few steps behind Josh, Cas spat a mouthful of blood right into the guy’s face. He recoiled, and Dean took that as his moment. He sprang forward, picked up Cas’ dropped angel blade, flipped it point-down and shoved it into the guy’s back. Josh screamed, bright light flashing from his eyes and mouth just like a demon’s death throes, but the glow intensified and took on a blue tinge so bright that Dean had to look away and shield his eyes with his arm. 

When he looked back, Josh had disappeared into nothing, and Cas was sitting slumped on the ground, propped up on the wall. The sword was still sticking out of his chest, but as Dean kneeled down beside him, murmuring his name, Cas reached up and pulled it out with a sick squelching sound. Dean recoiled in horror at the blood that pulsed out of Cas’ chest, but it was replaced by the bright light of grace as Cas healed himself. 

“The… the sword,” Cas said, slightly short of breath. “It was only…only bronze. He knew nothing…” Cas broke off with a hoarse cough.

“I swear to god, Cas, if you’re making a _Game of Thrones_ reference right now…” Dean began, relief overwhelming him. As Cas gave a small grin, Dean grabbed him around the shoulders and hugged him tightly. “Don’t do that again, okay? I thought you were gone again,” he muttered in Cas’ ear, having to stop when his voice cracked a little. 

He pulled back to look at Cas, their faces only a few inches apart, and in his gaze was a smile that made Dean warm down to his toes. 

Sam cleared his throat behind Dean, and Dean pulled back further, turning to look over his shoulder at his brother. Sam held up a round, golden object. “The medallion. Nice work, Cas. This thing still magic?”

“No,” Cas said. “It contained divine magic, but not anymore.”

Dean turned back to Cas, trying to stop his hands from shaking with relief. “You okay now?” he asked. Cas wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, then nodded, so Dean pulled him to his feet. “Who was that guy, anyway? Obviously not just some Derren Brown wannabe.”

“That,” Cas said, nudging the discarded bronze sword with his boot, “was Hedylogos.”

“You’re kidding,” Sam said, reaching down to pick the sword up. “One of the Erotes? The god of sweet-talk and flattery? No wonder you liked him so much, Cas!”

Dean gave Sam a filthy look, and when he looked back to Cas, he was echoing it. “Apparently the Erotes are vying for power against each other, but they’ve been in another realm so long they aren’t aware of how powerful angels are.” 

“Lucky for us, huh?” Dean said. “Did we really just kill him? I thought gods had to be ganked with special rituals or some crap?”

Sam shrugged. “Who knows? I hope that’s one down. Let’s get out of here.”

=❤=❤=❤=

Even though it was nearly midnight, Jacinta was still up when Sam sent her a text to tell her about the medallion, so he took his car to drop it in to her, while Cas and Dean took the truck home to deal with Cas’ bloody clothes. 

Dean sat nervously rubbing at his fingers while Cas drove. Nearly losing Cas again tonight had shaken him to his core all over again. He couldn’t wait any longer—he wanted to tell Cas that he didn’t need to go out to find anyone, that he could give Cas anything he wanted. He had always held back because he had never been sure that Cas would be interested in anything like that with a guy, or even with him, despite their friendship and whatever else they had in their messed-up relationship. But now, he had to know. He had to ask.

“Cas? I—” he began, just as Cas took a breath and said, “Dean, I’m sorry—” 

They grinned, their smiles soft in the flashing lights from the few cars on the highway. 

“Go on,” Cas said.

“Okay.” Dean took a breath, then kept going before he chickened out. “I know you went out with that guy tonight for more than drinks, okay? I just wanted to tell you that—” 

Cas interrupted, “Actually, no. I only went out because he compelled me to. At least, I’m fairly sure the magic was working on me.” 

Dean opened his mouth and closed it again, momentarily derailed. “You didn’t want to hook up with him?” 

Cas eyed him briefly, then turned back to the road. “I don’t know, he was nice, and funny, and he said really nice things to me.” He shrugged. 

“But you might have, if he tried it on with you? Like you’d be into doing that... with a guy?” _What the hell?_ That wasn’t the way Dean wanted to ask that at all.

“And if I had? Dean, you’re my family and I love you, but the people I choose to—how did you put it?— ‘Hook up’ with? That’s my choice. Thanks for looking out for me, but I’m fine.” 

Dean felt like he’d been slapped in the face. Cas didn’t want anything with him, but he was interested in guys—maybe more than Dean had ever known him to be interested in women. His chest suddenly tight, he nodded, staring out the window in the other direction. 

“All right,” he said, pulling together the pieces of his heart. “That’s your choice. But you don’t have to go running off without saying anything, okay? You know we’re here for you. Whatever you need, okay?” 

“Okay,” Cas replied.

Silence descended as they continued down the I-70 into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> 
>  **Read on - >**  
> [Episode Five: In Any Universe](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/DestielFanficSeason15/works/19162072), by FindingFrancis  
> Dean is reeling from finding out Cas doesn't see him with anything more than 'brotherly' affection. He tries to deal with his feelings the Winchester Way but ends up somewhere far away from home.


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